Sometimes you find that piece that seems to scream at you from across the thrift store.  "ME, it's me you've been looking for!"  I bought this piece for $8. I lent it to a friend for a few months before I got around to redoing it. It's kinda like my husband... everyday I look at and think, "Man, I'm sure glad I picked you up." HA. Seriously though.

This is what it looked like before I worked some magic.  She's a diamond in the rough.

This is what she looks like today, gracing my front room/office.

What I love best about her (yep, calling the table her) is that the insets are a different color.  Hello!  I was so happy when I thought of that.  Don't you think it makes it look so custom and expensive? Me too.

You might notice that she looks a little glossy. I wanted to echo the gloss of my ghost chairs.  If it weren't for the chairs I probably wouldn't have gone with the gloss... but I love it.

This is how I painted her...

1. Applied a layer or two of green, home-made chalk paint all over.

2. Applied a layer of Elmer's glue with a sponge brush.

3. Painted over the glue with gray, homemade chalk paint.

4. Used my blowdryer to dry the paint and create the crackle affect. Super cool trick.

5. Applied two coats of spray laquer.

The top of this table is pretty much the best thing I've ever seen, ever.  You can see that I didn't fully cover the first layer of greenish paint with the gray. I wanted to see some dimension.

There you have it. A beat up piece of furniture from the 70's gets a face lift and is now AH-mazing.  I hope this inspires you to go thirfting and fand something lame and make it super cool. Check out my other DIY projects!